11 Ways to Successfully Promote Your New Book

Writing a book is hard work. But after the ink has dried, your real work is just beginning. After all, you want people to appreciate and learn from all your research.

That’s why we asked a panel of 11 entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question.

“What is one effective tool or strategy I can use to promote my new business book?”

Here’s what YEC community members had to say:

1. Speak for Free

“Offering to speak to groups, companies, entrepreneurs and organizations for free is a huge way to promote your new book. During your message, you can share that you have the book available for purchase and create sales and revenue while speaking.” ~ Matt Shoup, MattShoup.com

2. Make an Online Course

“I created an online course version of my book and watched sales of both explode. These days, readers want to learn though multiple channels (e.g., video, live chat, reading and more). Take each chapter, and turn it into a five-minute summary video. Post it on your website, and offer it as a package with your book. Not only will your sales increase, but also your readers will love it.” ~ Vanessa Van Edwards, Science of People

3. Blog

“Reach out to influential bloggers in your space, and offer to provide them with high-quality content in return for a link or mention of your new book.” ~ Josh Weiss, Bluegala

4. Get Interviewed

“Getting in front of your ideal audience is key, and getting interviewed in targeted places, such as your prospective customers’ favorite podcasts, is the way to go. All it takes is a carefully crafted email, a nice intro from someone or just a great book website to show you know your stuff!” ~ Nathalie Lussier, Nathalie Lussier Media Inc.

5. Leverage Reviews Early

“If you send out early copies of the books for review, be sure to collect the responses well before your launch. Then on the day of the release, send copies of the review to each person, and ask them to post it directly on Amazon to encourage additional sales. Their reviews can be used in emails, on your book page and to secure speaking gigs. ” ~ Kelly Azevedo, She’s Got Systems

6. Utilize LinkedIn

“LinkedIn has a user base that’s all about new business knowledge. Utilize the many different areas on LinkedIn to promote your book. Edit your profile, and add the book to your professional headline, your experience, your summary and maybe even your job. Space it out over time so that LinkedIn treats each update as something to feature on its home page. Then, make status updates of your own.” ~ Brett Farmiloe, Internet Advertising Company

7. Create an Email Signature

“Think of how many emails you send every day. It’s likely a lot, isn’t it? It’s easy to create your own custom email signature to include your book’s listing. This tends to be very effective because the people receiving your message generally read it all the way through, and they also tend to be a little nosy when it comes to the sender. ” ~ Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net

8. Send Out a Press Release

“When you publish your new book, one way to set yourself apart from the thousands of other books published each year is to write and publish an official press release. By doing this, you will get your story and the book’s premise in front of numerous reporters and journalists who may be interested in your topic. This broad reach can lead to great success.” ~ Bobby Grajewski, Edison Nation Medical

9. Release a Sample Chapter

“Giving away a sample chapter is a great way to help potential readers preview the book. It’s even better if you can reward those who do purchase with a bonus chapter that didn’t make the final cut. ” ~ Jenny Blake, Jenny Blake

10. Lower the Purchase Barrier

“The best technique I’ve seen for promoting business books is to release it for a very small amount as an Amazon eBook. Releasing the book for free usually gets you a lot of downloads, but very few people actually consume the book. If you want people to consume your content, even charging a dollar will seriously boost consumption while lowering the barrier to purchase to almost nothing.” ~ Liam Martin, Staff.com

11. Create an Easily Converted Landing Page

“Describe the benefits of your book, the highlights, blurbs/recommendations, sample content or examples and a description of the book. You can structure it with a picture of the book on the left side of this Web page and the description and information to the right and below. Then, include a highly converting “buy the book” button in an action color. You can also collect emails.” ~ Lane Sutton, Social Media from a Teen

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

9 Reactions

I don’t have a book to promote, but I do have products. I found some of the tips useful for that, such as getting interviewed, using LinkedIn and releasing a sample.

Re: lowering the purchase barrier – if I am to understand the suggestion, it’s not something I’d do for myself as I feel I’d be undervaluing myself. I also wouldn’t make much money. / Perhaps it’s something I’d consider doing for a very limited time, but that’s it. I need to eat.

There are some great ideas in this article. Thank you so much! I have a new book being published by Morgan James Publishing and due out on Amazon in August. I will be launching a crowdfunding campaign to generate revenue for marketing (which I must mainly do myself) but even moreso to help get the book out in front of others during the late spring and summer. I intend to use some of these ideas, many of which I can use even before the official book launch, for example, course creation with a 5-minute video synopsis of each chapter. So your article is very timely for me!

Great tips! Its critical to create a foundation with your brand, website, and social media so people within 7 seconds can figure out “who you are” and “what you do”. As a personal brand strategist this is where I see most people fail when trying to monetize their book.

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